Near Faenella, Eganene
“She’s asleep,” Carl said, taking a seat at the kitchen table. It was a grey morning, the snow outside spiraling down to land against Melody’s window. He could tell by the wind that much of the storm had hit to the north. Carl was grateful. It would make his trip easier.
Melody didn’t reply, busy with the skillet over the fire. The room glowed, illuminating her unkempt hair and the fresh herbs she kept in pots along the window’s edge. Carl sat back, enjoying the heat as his stomach rumbled. Last night had taken a lot out of him and the bread, bacon and frying eggs smelled like heaven.
“Poor child,” Lie muttered. He had his head in his hands and looked the worse for wear. His eyes were ringed in shadow.
Carl agreed. He had been around sick people before, many times, but it was different when you were caring for a child. The worst part was that none of them had any idea what was wrong. Carl and Charlie had taken turns holding her, afraid that she would harm herself, but they’d been helpless. The child had responded to nothing. It was a difficult thing to see, but Veri was sleeping now and Carl hoped she would wake with clear eyes.
“It must have been a powerful nightmare,” Melody said, serving her husband enough food to feed a small town.
Carl poured tea into a mug. “I don’t know what else it could have been.” Taking a careful sip, he continued, “I’ve been with her for a few days and this is the first time she’s suffered this way.”
He frowned, looking into his cup. “She slept well in the forest and at the Inn. I told Charlie about what she did when she woke up at night, but that was different.”
Melody shoveled food onto Carl’s plate. “I’ve never seen anything like it, not in all my years.” She glanced at her husband and their eyes met. “Never, Lie. Obviously, the child has been through a lot, I…I just wish there had been something else we could have done. I can’t even imagine what she saw when....”
“That’s past. She’s here now,” her husband soothed.
Melody sighed, letting the conversation drop. Carl was grateful, he didn’t want to think of the burning wagon or blood splattered bushes.
The firelight wasn’t enough to change their mood and the rest of breakfast passed in silence. When Carl and Lie had finished eating and were on to their second cup of tea, Melody cleared their plates and set to work. Carl could tell she was nervous. She wanted do something, to help the child, but there was nothing to be done.
When everything was cleaned, she packed him a travel sack, adding in cured meats, nuts, dried berries and a block of hard cheese. He even saw her tuck in a woolen blanket. She was kind. Veri would be happy here.
Finished, she handed him the pack. He checked the bedroom door. He wanted to see the child one more time, but decided against it. Daylight was burning and it was time to go.
Carl pulled his coat off the peg by the door, feeling a moment’s sadness. She was a good kid and he would miss her. Obviously, Melody’s and Lie’s care of her would be a hundred times better than his own could ever be. He’d look forward to seeing her again in a few weeks. Hopefully, she’d have started to forget the horrors.
Casting a last look at the door, he hugged Charlie and his wife and thanked them for their hospitality. Bow and sword slung over one shoulder, and his pack across the other, he set out. If he was able to find the Jasper’s camp, he would need to get back for help as fast as possible. It was anyone’s guess how long the prisoners could survive.
He had just reached the edge of the forest, his eyes adjusting to the darker light, when he heard a shout. Behind him, Charlie stood at the cottage door, his friend’s broad body all but eclipsing Melody and Veri behind him. The smaller pair waved emphatically, displacing the lazy snowflakes.
Carl jogged back towards the cottage, surprised that the child was out of bed. “Hey, darling,” he exclaimed, kneeling in front of her. “You had us scared last night.” She threw her arms around him and crawled up into his arms. Like a wounded animal, she felt warm and vulnerable.
“It exploded,” she whispered into his ear.
Carl glanced at Lie and Melody in turns, but both shrugged. “What exploded, honey?”
She shook her head, her tight curls bouncing along the curve of her face. “I don’t know, but it was big. I…I didn’t see it, but I could feel it. It felt like…when you put a rock into a fire.”
“The rock will shatter,” Lie supplied.
“Mmm, hmm,” she whispered. “It exploded, shattered. And it hurt. It should never hurt.” She touched the pack he dropped on the ground, her little nose scrunched up in concern, “You shouldn’t go there.”
“Where?”
Veri pointed north.
“What’s she talking about, Carl?” Melody asked, stepping out of the doorframe. She shut the cabin door behind her and wrapped the child in a sweater. “She didn’t have a fever last night, but maybe...”
Carl shook his head, “I don’t think so, Melody. She’s saying she felt something, some kind of explosion.”
“I didn’t feel anything,” Lie said.
“Neither did I,” his wife echoed. She rubbed the girl’s shoulders. “Did she imagine it, Carl? Could she be having nightmares because of what she saw before, because of what happened to her family?”
“I told Lie about what she did for my headaches.” He looked up into her eyes, hoping she would understand. “The child fixed them, Melody. She made them disappear.”
“Oh, you don’t think she’s...”
Carl stood up, his eyes on her face. “Truth, I don’t know. I don’t have much experience with that kind of thing, but it would explain why her family was running.”
There was less than a second’s hesitation and Charlie moved, his meaty arm wrapping about his wife’s shoulders. “Does it matter, love? She’s just a babe and no one knows who she is.”
“Of course not,” Melody said, fixing her apron and staring at the child in Carl’s arms. “She needs us. I know that.”
Carl could feel the child shift her weight, unconsciously moving back towards Charlie’s wife.
The woman knelt down in the snow and cupped the girl’s chin. “It was an explosion?”
Veri shuddered, her little chin bobbing up and down.
Melody’s eyes shifted to Carl’s face, “And you think it’s real? You believe she actually felt it?”
The child trembled against him. Carl nodded, “I do.”
“Carl. We need to know what she knows.”
Melody touched the girl’s shoulder. “What happened, Veri? Carl is leaving. He’s going to help people like your family, people who might be in trouble.”
The child’s shoulders pulled in, “I… I didn’t see much. It was big, too big, and it felt like my ears were splitting, like someone was pounding on my head.”
“Has anything like this happened before?”
“No…never.”
“But it stopped?”
The child nodded, her eyes trailing the edge of the forest. “There’s something up there, though. I can feel it.”
Lie mumbled, attracting all of their attention. Finally, his words grew clear, “What if…what if they were expecting this, Carl? You’ve seen all the extra Family around the woods. What if they were planning something? Testing some kind of new weapon?”
“A majical one?” Melody scoffed. “They wouldn’t use that.”
Her husband disagreed. “But what if they did? They might know about the Gathering.”
“Not possible,” Carl replied. “If they even suspected, they’d have killed everyone. Over the last few weeks, I’ve run into Employees in Faenella. They let me pass.”
“But what else could it be?” his friend pressed.
“I don’t know, but the camp where I’m headed might not be far distant from whatever is going on. It could even be the same place. If it is not, I’ll detour there before I return.”
He looked at them both, “It’s worth the time. We have to know.”
Melody pulled the girl towards her, “She told you it’s dangerous, Carl.”
“I appreciate your concern and your warning. I’ll be careful, I promise.”
Charlie put an arm around his wife, “I would still rather come with you.”
Carl nodded, “And I’d rather you stayed and saw to Veri. You know you’re noisy.”
Charlie grunted and released his wife. She didn’t waste any time, but rushed forward and kissed Carl on the forehead. “Go with the gods, then. And return to us quickly.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Carl untangled the girl from his legs, careful not to hurt her little limbs, “I’ll be all right, child, I promise. I doubt anyone will even see me. The forest and I are good friends.”
She nodded and he left her there, hoping his friends could give her some peace while he was gone. He even kept his promise, for a while, anyway.
The woods around his friend’s cottage were familiar. He met no one, but he wasn’t alone. The fresh snow was only a few inches deep and he could see animal markings. There were rodents, squirrel and fox, deer and even a few moose that must have wandered down from the northern areas. It was strange for them to be this far South. Either they’d been spooked by the majical “explosion” or there were more predators than usual.
Normally, when he traveled, he took the time to hunt. Not today. He was moving quickly. As he walked, he let his mind wander. His body took control, his steps moving in and out of tree cover, hugging the shadows to avoid the light that shone between the pine boughs. Out of habit, his eyes raked the forest line, turning shadow into stones, snow or the occasional animal.
As noon approached, he began to sweat. The temperature was still below freezing, but he’d been moving since just after dawn. He let a little laugh escape into the cold air. Apparently, he wasn’t used to wearing a coat and his body had adjusted to being without. Carl brushed the bubbling emotions aside.
The girl was better off. She was probably sitting in front of the fire, drinking milk and eating cookies. Lie would protect her and Melody would love her like her own. He’d made the right decision.
Yet it was difficult to banish the image of the poor child writhing on the bed. He could see her shuddering and crying. When he could, he stopped at a stream and refilled his canteen, wishing it were something stronger. Melody might like to share a drink, but she wouldn’t have packed him any.
What a mess, he thought. For years, he’d avoided being sucked into this madness. He liked it better in the woods where he had cover. He agreed with Charlie and he’d seen firsthand what the Family could do, but he preferred to do what he could near Faenella. It was hard to resist Lie, however, and the big man had been after him to join the Rebellion.
He’d agreed to meet Austin for the weapon’s drop as a way to appease his friend without committing. That wasn’t to say he was new at this. For years he’d been eliminating the random Family filth he met in the forest. He considered it part of his job. It wasn’t a spoken arrangement, but he thought Jamison knew what he was doing. Carl was responsible for his woods and quietly removing predators did a lot to keep people safe.
But he couldn’t be everywhere at once.
He realized he wasn’t paying any attention and stopped. Letting his mind wander was one thing, that was how one passed time in the woods, but he always knew where he was. He didn’t recognize this meadow. He stood on the border, his one arm in the sunshine so that light reflected off the hide. A few straggly pines dotted the landscape, but otherwise, the woods were deserted. His heart fell through his stomach and he slowly pulled himself back into darkness.
The snow around him lay all but unbroken across the meadow floor. Last night’s storm hadn’t dropped enough powder to hide tracks. There should have been hundreds of prints across that whiteness: mice, vole, birds, rabbits, ‘coons, jsihs, wild dog. There should have been a tapestry of movement and life, but instead there was hardly anything, just a beautiful, almost flat, layer of snow.
Letting out a breath, he hid the puff of air in his sleeve and moved further into the shadows. This was a pine forest, the trees overhead had broken joints that jabbed out from their trunks.
He exhaled again, more gently this time.
He’d been lucky. There was no soft whiss of an arrow and no hurried steps. He had given himself a scare, though, and his heart raced in the forest silence.
He was never this careless. Worse, he had promised the child that he’d come back. He’d promised her he’d be safe. Shaking his head, he felt his sweaty hair drop onto his brow to cool. It would have been better if he hadn’t promised.
He pulled his pack off his shoulder and propped everything alongside one of the pines. Inside his bag were the cured meat and cheese Melody sent along. He put his back against the tree and sat. Obviously, his mind was nowhere it needed to be. He might as well get some food and take a short rest.
Perhaps it was Tod, then, that had him sitting when a stranger arrived to check his traps. The man was in his middle years, taller than most, with a jaw cut hard and straight. Carl’s eyes followed him, seeing the hair that peeked from beneath his hood and the gun that rested at his hip.
The stranger looked out into the woods, but he did not see Carl. The man moved towards the meadow, his eyes on the lonely pines at the center. That was why the snow was so perfect.
The man was a professional, his footsteps deliberate, not crunching through the outer layer of snow, but depressing it gently. A woolen jacket covered his torso and a pack was slung across his shoulders. Sunlight lit the metallic buttons on his chest and Carl wondered for the thousandth time why Family were smart enough to creep through the forest, yet vain enough to give themselves away.
A Dog, Carl thought as the man knelt beside a small shrub to pull on something. It was the movement that let him see it, the fine wire that ran to one of the trees. Its length rested only inches off the ground, almost invisible in the shadows. Carl sighed inwardly, sliding back to his weapons and pack. With his mind on the child, he’d never have noticed the trap.
Curiosity got the better of him and Carl nocked an arrow and stalked closer. Keeping his body low to the ground, he used the trees as cover, sliding from one to the next. Once he was close, he picked a comfortable position, just at the edge of the sunlight, and settled in to watch.
The wire was something special. He had never had much use for the finer crafts of metal work or had the money to purchase anything so expensive, but it appeared to be metal thread, rigid and firm. The man was careful as he handled it and Carl realized why.
It was razor wire. Jamison had used it a few times to protect garden plots harassed by sfhi. It was a matter of last resort. Sfhi were stubborn creatures and there had been another option. Carl glared at the man, wondering what he was doing with such a dangerous item. There wasn’t a garden out here. He wasn’t protecting anything.
He must be hunting something big.
Deer? People?
Carl’s lips drew back in a snarl. His guess was that the man was after hostages. There was little point in trapping large animals alive, their terror was destructive and ruined equipment. Human captives were a different story. After the metal wire cut the tendons in their legs, they would lay bleeding until the Dog returned or another predator smelled blood.
Carl thought this man needed to answer some questions. After the Dog told him what or who he was trapping, he could explain why there were so many Family in the woods. The explosion, the Facility, plans for troop movements, Carl ticked off his questions. Interrogation was definitely the best idea.
The downside was he didn’t like killing in his own territory. Anytime he dealt with a Dog, he lured the xia into the remote woodlands to make sure he wasn’t found. But Carl was interested in where this one was going. If the stranger was headed back to the Facility, Carl would follow him.
Before there was a chance to decide, the Dog moved on, headed north. It delayed Carl’s decision and gave him a tail to follow. He let his target get a decent ways ahead before he started to track. Soon enough he felt himself relax. This was better. This was something he knew.
He followed from a distance, catching sight of his target for only a second at a time. After half-an-hour, the man no longer bothered to obscure his prints. Instead, the Dog watched the surrounding forest, looking for others. Carl wondered how many there were and touched his sword.
They walked for a long time, almost until dusk. By then, the sky had darkened several shades and the night animals had begun their calls. It was in that changing light, that he saw evidence of other men. He saw a campfire, the glow burning along the eastern portion of the mountain range. Carl broke from the man’s path, content. With that kind of marker, he could find them whenever he wanted.
At a small creek, he drank his fill and lay down to rest. Part of him hoped the men would leave tonight. He was eager to find the Facility and tracking in darkness was little different than in daylight. Here, deep in the shadows, he was home.
He woke several hours past midnight and although it was too cloudy to find the moon, a pale light brightened the back of the clouds. It wasn’t enough to see by, not unless you spent your life in the woods. It was beautiful, like a blanket had been thrown across the heavens. Overhead, the empty branches crossed his vision in a patchwork of black and blue.
It was a favorable light for stealth. He could see the glare of the men’s fire and set to work creeping up the side of the mountain. He moved silently, sneaking through the forest in determined arcs, sweeping for sentries. It took him several hours, but he enjoyed the time. There was something in the anticipation before a fight, something in the time spent waiting that made the action better, more important. He could feel it in his body, in his blood and in the warmth that spread across his chest and face and hands.
When he was close enough, he saw two men. The one he’d followed was lying on a blanket close to the fire. His eyes were closed and Carl was able to track the rhythmic rise and fall of his shoulders. The other man was smaller and was wrapped in a thick hide.
Leaning against a tree, Carl kept his eyes on the bald man as he settled in to wait. There was something odd about him, something familiar. Carl was too far to see his features, so he spent the next hour and a half getting closer. Without his pack and weapons, he could move quickly. He took a step, paused, counted to a few hundred and watched for the man’s reaction. He was within fifteen yards when the man moved. Carl froze, watching.
The bald man stood, gathering wood from their pile and tossing it on the dying fire. His movements were sure and efficient. This one had training. The man turned to regard his sleeping friend. Carl wondered if it was time to change watches. As the light reflected from his bald head, Carl realized it was misshapen, a large wound trailing a few inches above his eye, down his nose and across his cheek to his ear.
The bald man used the toe of his boot to nudge the man at his feet, “Wake up.”
“What?” the Dog grumbled, sleepily.
“It’s your watch,” the bald man replied.
“Gods, Jeremy, can’t you let a man sleep?” The Dog rolled over, making no effort to get up.
Jeremy shoved him with the toe of his boot and the man batted at his hand.
“It’s your watch,” Jeremy announced, again.
The man groaned and got up. “Don’t know how you can tell with all these clouds. Looks to me the same as when I laid down.”
Jeremy spread his coat on the forest floor, “I know what I’m about.”
“I know, I know, you told me already.”
“Then I shouldn’t need to tell you again.”
The Dog took a slow look at the trees around their fire. His eyes drifted right over Carl, seeing only shadow. “Don’t know what you are so worried about.”
Jeremy closed his eyes, turning his face towards the fire. “I’m not worried. I’m cautious. I know these woods and I know what’s in them. The fire should be enough, but I wouldn’t want to take the risk. I explained this to you already.”
“Fine,” the Dog said, sounding sour. Sitting on a log, he scratched at his head. “I just don’t know…”
“Exactly. You don’t know. So keep watch. And be silent. I need to sleep.”
The man’s eyes narrowed, “I’m not an idiot. You might be from around here, but I’ve been doing this more years than you. I don’t care if you think you know these woods. You see these buttons?” he asked, pointing to his chest. “I outrank you.”
Jeremy didn’t open his eyes.
“Xia,” the Dog breathed, pulling his hood over his hair.
Carl watched him for a while, wondering if he would fall asleep on his watch. Once he had the Dog’s gun, it would be a simple matter to incapacitate the two men. He considered going back for his sword, but decided it would take too long. There were only a few hours left until morning.
Unfortunately, Jeremy didn’t wake. The Dog was true to his word, keeping watch until dawn so that Carl was forced to melt back into the forest. He took his time. The fire ruined the man’s night vision and limited a lookout’s sight to a fifteen-foot circle. When the day broke for good, Carl was back at his pack.
He didn’t waste any time, but ate a quick breakfast, keeping his eye on the ridge where the men were camped. Judging by the smell and smoke, they had made their meal and smothered their fire. He heard them leave and followed from a distance. They took no pains to be silent and the sound of their conversation occasionally echoed off the mountainside.
Carl was glad he hadn’t killed them. They were still headed north. As eager as he was to have answers, it would be easier to find the camp if they led him to its gates. If they didn’t reach it today, he would get close to the men tonight. They seemed at odds with one another and he could use that.
The Dog was Family and Carl had already decided what to do with him. The other man, he wasn’t sure about. From their conversation, he sounded more like a guide than a Dog. It was possible he only worked for the Family as hired help. In that case, he would probably be accommodating about trading Carl information for his life.